Our money woes and anxiety travel with us. Our bodies carry everything.
Which means that toxic money behaviour and thoughts can become trapped into our body unless we find a way to alchemize and extract them.
It’s important to carve time out of the chaotic busy-ness of life for self-reflection.
It gives you space to unpack the crap that is weighing you down. Especially true around your finances, if you are worried or experiencing lack.
One way to self reflect is through Journaling. Journaling has been around for thousands of years originating in Japan.
Journaling helps you to explore your mental landscape, emotional triggers and present moment awareness.
And when we get into present moment awareness, all our stories, beliefs and attitudes no longer control us. We have the opportunity to reinvent our relationship to money!
I use journaling to put any issues that I am facing out there, so that they are outside my body. I drop into the present moment, where nothing is true – all my stories are just that – stories.
Natalie Goldberg wrote a book called “Writing down the bones” and teaches a method of writing that helps free you from your inner critic. One basic exercise that I did whilst on a Facilitation Shindig was to set a timer, select a topic or word (in this case let’s choose money) and write without lifting your pen and stopping so that even if you were writing “This is dumb. I hate this exercise.” you are not stopping to evaluate your thoughts.
Have you noticed how censored your writing and thoughts are? How caged you might feel about letting your “real” feelings be known?
Next time you feel anxious or stressed around money, pour it out onto the page!
Putting Journaling into Practice
- Use pen to paper so that you are tapping into the right side of your brain.
- Come to your practice with an open mind.
- Set a timer – you’ll be surprised how quickly or how slowly time can run – all depending on your mood!
- Write! Even if it’s just to write “I don’t know what I’m supposed to be writing”, “I’m already bored.” “I’ve got so much other shit to do right now then be sitting here writing.”
- Try not to pause so even if you have to fill the page(s) with the above, you are working stream of consciousness.
Once you’ve put the bones down onto the page. Consider the following when reviewing the activity:
- What assumptions am I making around this challenging situation?
- What do I think is stopping me from moving forward?
- How might this be an example of how I perceive things in general?
The first principle of money transformation is Awareness. Your thoughts govern your actions. Therefore, in order to assess where you are with regards to your relationship with money (as with any relationship), it is critical to know from where you think? We are probably all familiar with Descartes’ theory “I think therefore I am” and it is spot on in this case. Not only are you conscious because you think you are – you are what you think.
For example, if you think yourself into a state of depression, then all thoughts and actions are going to reflect your depression.
If you think you have a bad relationship with money, then you will act like you do and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. These questions help bring up your feelings and thoughts about money.
Money has a very strong energy. Its energy permeates our culture because it is interwoven as part of our cultural system. It never ceases to exist once it comes into our consciousness. I can assert that your relationship to money was first established as a young child. You would have been influenced by your primary guardian’s relationship to money or by events that occurred that led you to believe something about their relationship to money.
Want to continue to improve your relationship with money?
Click here for a page of 30 Money related Journal Prompts to help get started on improving your relationship to money. Why not use them as a 30 day challenge to start your journal practice?
By getting your feelings out of your body and onto a platform where you are able to consider what’s going on, will dramatically improve your ability to flourish financially!
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